Open Primaries

Friday, February 08, 2008

Obama Memo: Independents will trump Maverick in November

Marc Ambinder on The Atlantic, among a few others at this moment, brings us The Memo from Barack Obama below:

TO: Interested PartiesFR: Obama CommunicationsRE: The Candidate Who Can Win: Barack Obama is beating Hillary Clinton with Independent voters and can beat John McCain in NovemberDA: February 8, 2007On the day that John McCain became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, a Time poll confirmed what voters and polls have consistently demonstrated in the last few weeks – Barack Obama is the candidate best suited to win Independents, play well in Red States, and beat John McCain in November..... (read more)

Apparently the Clinton campaign thought this was a significant enough "hit" to hold a conference call. This from the Wall Street Journal Wire: On a conference call today, senior Hillary Clinton advisers stressed that the New York senator and former first lady has been vetted more than Obama and has a proven track record of standing up to Republican attacks.....

TPM Election Central says: [Obama says his] appeal to independents far outpaces [Hillary's] and that she would unite Republicans and conservatives fractured by McCain's expected victory. But in a twist, the memo seeks to bolster the point by quoting Republicans saying it....

New York Newsday's Spin Cycle calls into question the tactics of the Hillary response: Why would the Clinton campaign want to put a fight with a previously unknown and already apologetic MSNBC correspondent named David Shuster in the headlines today? Maybe because it's better than having this in the headlines, from Time.....

We'll see how this plays out. It is certainly noteworthy that Obama won a helluva lot of votes from independents on Super Tuesday [read Lenora Fulani's "Obama's Wave and the New York Role Reversal" about Barack Obama's independent vote, black vote and black independent vote...] And of course this was the moment that Romney dropped out, making it more clear that John McCain, the Maverick, will surely be the nominee of the Repubs.

To be sure, independents have given a lot to the Obama campaign, and probably wisely. Obama has projected a message that resonates with independent voters. This election is not about a change in party in Washington DC, and any meaningful change in the country will come from the bottom up. If we are to take this message as ultimately serious and on point, then we will have to consider our own responsibility as ordinary people in leading the country forward.

Whatever the outcome of this election, independents will continue to organize at the grassroots. It's the people, not the parties or the candidates -- as good as they may be, that need to be heard. -NH